Ayush Kumar named Managing Director at New Delhi Institute Of Management (BBA)

From consulting at KPMG to writing bestselling Mahabharata retellings to running a B-school. That's range.

Ayush Kumar just became Managing Director of New Delhi Institute Of Management (BBA), one of Delhi's oldest business schools, and his path there is anything but conventional.

XLRI Jamshedpur MBA. Then KPMG India as Senior Consultant in Customer & Operations, advising on digital transformation across healthtech and education verticals. That's the expected trajectory for a top B-school grad.

But somewhere in between strategy decks and client presentations, he wrote Hastinapur Crumbling, a Mahabharata retelling that became an Amazon bestseller. Not a side hobby. A full narrative reimagining grey-area origins and leadership dilemmas through ancient epics. Because apparently management consulting and mythological storytelling use the same muscle: understanding human systems under pressure.

Before consulting, he sold elevators at Schindler India. Before that, Aerospace engineering in the US. The through-line? He's always been figuring out how things work and how to make them work better.

Now at NDIM, affiliated with Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, he's applying all of that to business education. Student-first transformation. Tech integration. Mentorship models that actually prepare graduates for real markets, not just exams. He's also pursuing an Executive Fellow Programme in Management at XLRI, because education leaders should still be learning.

He's already been teaching at Masters' Union, delivering executive education on strategy and entrepreneurship. Public speaking at premier institutions across India. Recognized as "35 Under 35" by Entrepreneur India. And now leading one of Delhi's foundational B-schools through its next chapter.

Most education leaders come from decades in academia. Ayush is bringing consulting rigor, authorial storytelling, and a track record of navigating completely different sectors. NDIM just bet that business schools need leaders who've actually done business, not just studied it.

At Boardroom CXO, we're seeing younger, more cross-functional leaders taking C-suite roles in education and edtech. The market is rewarding diverse experience over traditional academic progression, especially in institutions looking to modernize quickly.

We run an invite-only CXO community with weekly networking and peer learning sessions where leaders discuss career pivots, cross-sector experience, and what it takes to drive transformation in traditional institutions. Interested? DM us.

For education and edtech leaders: what matters more when modernizing traditional institutions, understanding academia or understanding how the outside world actually works?